The municipality of Maputo is advocating the institutionalization of an emergency fund for better management of natural disasters in Mozambique's largest municipality.

The proposal was presented yesterday, Wednesday (24), by Mayor Rasaque Manhique, explaining that extreme natural phenomena are increasingly severe, with a major negative impact on the capital city.

"Because (natural) phenomena are cyclical and with increasingly severe characteristics, therefore, similar to the institutionalization of the Emergency Operating Committee, we urgently need to set up an emergency fund to better deal with phenomena," said Manhique, speaking during the 2nd Ordinary Session of the Maputo Municipal Assembly, stressing that "we must, as a body, draw up the terms of reference for the management and transportation of this fund, which will be for the good of our citizens."

For the mayor, quoted by AIMThe phenomena tend to be cyclical. In fact, the storm that hit the Mozambican capital in March affected around 49,647 people, around 10,640 families.

"The repetition of these phenomena, and these frightening numbers, require us to respond consistently and swiftly on the scale of a capital city. Unfortunately, phenomena of this nature almost always put cities on the back foot, given the magnitude and unpredictability of their destructive potential," said the mayor.

The mayor said that major interventions must be made around the capital to prepare the city for future events.

"As a municipality we need to intervene in the city on a global scale, in the medium and long term, adapting its profile to the demands of climate change, but as you can imagine this is a job that will take time given the objective conditions in which we find ourselves," he concluded.